


What Happens on Rishi

by butterpanic



Category: Star Wars Legends: The Old Republic (Video Game)
Genre: F/F, Mildly Dubious Consent, Sex Pollen, Star Wars: The Old Republic - Shadow of Revan
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-12
Updated: 2020-11-12
Packaged: 2021-03-09 01:20:58
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,165
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27276334
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/butterpanic/pseuds/butterpanic
Summary: "It's a spore," Lana said. "The effects are most closely comparable to a sort of aphrodisiac stim.""Well, that explains why I've been humping the corner of this console for the past few minutes."The Empire has once again failed to clean up its messes.
Relationships: Lana Beniko/Female Smuggler
Comments: 3
Kudos: 18
Collections: Fic In A Box





	What Happens on Rishi

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Gammarad](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gammarad/gifts).



"This the place?"

Lana looked up from the dusty console. It was, though she couldn't blame the captain for her skepticism. Years of abandonment to the mercies of Rishi's climate had done no favors for the former Imperial research site; the motionless air hung sour and musky in the gloom. She watched the captain draw a line in the dust that seemed to cover everything.

Then another line. A curve to join the two. Then - truly? Captain Rena Lerek, caught in the act, simply grinned. All teeth.

If she hadn't already gotten the true measure of the woman on Manaan, she would doubt Theron's judgement.

"I'm going to try and restart emergency power." Lana scrolled through the output on her datapad, pleased with the results. There would be no way to restore full functionality to the base, not within their resources nor their timeframe. Full functionality wasn't needed, however; the base's true value was in the encrypted line Lana hoped was still connected to the clandestine Imperial network on Rishi. Abandoned, forgotten, and perhaps overlooked, the perfect backdoor into communications resources the Revanites had seized to their own ends. His name or even a whisper of it, that was all she needed. A few more taps and the system hummed gratifyingly into life.

Dull red emergency lights blinked on, illuminating stillness and chaos at once. The dust settled thick and undisturbed on overturned chairs and scattered datapads. Lab equipment of some sort, much of it destroyed. Animals, perhaps, or looters long since gone, but a concern nagged at the back of her mind and Lana moved from the emergency power routines to the logs. The connection was slow, maddeningly so, and she tapped the pad irritably against the console as she waited.

"Still got another load on the speeders, Captain." Her companion - what was the man's name again? - stood in the doorway, arms full of supplies. "Where do you want it?"

The logs loaded. Immediate shutdown, evacuation notice, medical briefing.

"Stop." Lana threw up her hand, embracing the Force reflexively. "You, get out. Now."

The captain and her companion reacted at once, hands going to blasters. To defend against an unknown threat or to counter her perceived betrayal, she didn't know and frankly didn't have the time to ascertain.

"I'm closing the blast door. This base was shut down due to containment failure. One of the experiments..."

"Exposure," Rena snapped, and the man at the door dropped his supplies with a clatter. Backed away, no arguments, fast enough to nearly stumble as the doors slammed shut.

"You ever see a bug go through a ship?" Rena answered Lana's unspoken question, face grim. "The crew knows what to do." Her holocomm beeped.

"You ok, Captain?" If Rena was now coolly professional, her companion was noticeably less so, voice tight with worry even over the tinny audio connection. She looked to Lana, who scrolled desperately for a response.

Highly contagious spore, enhanced from a local plant. Non-fatal. Effects... Lana read through the report, a sinking feeling deeper with every line. This was weapons research.

"It's not deadly," Lana said. The smuggler's jaw softened, shoulders relaxing by a hair. "But it is at least temporarily very unpleasant. Captain, we need to speak privately."

"Yeah, I'm fine." Rena smiled tightly. "Lana says it's nothing. Head back to port, tell the crew what's happening. No heroic rescues."

"Captain-"

"And take a shower." She paused. "Tell Risha I authorized a water shower. Just in case." The call cut off.

"That isn't what I said."

"I mention anything that sounds like 'unpleasant' and Corso will be back in here even if he has to shoot through the blast doors. Then we'll have a different problem."

Lana couldn't argue the point, and given what she was about to share, she agreed with her reasoning. Strongly.

"It's a spore," Lana said, wasting no time. Who knew how much time they had, at this point. "The effects are most closely comparable to a sort of aphrodisiac stim."

"We got dosed? Had that happen once on Port Nowhere, had to get Guss to kick me in the shins all the way back to the ship so I didn't try and run off with the nearest drunk merc."

"It's not primarily airborne." She consulted the report, bare as it was. "If I had to guess, I suspect it's lurking somewhere in all this dust."

The captain, she noticed, took the time to buff out the phallus she'd scribbled onto the console earlier.

"Well, that explains why I've been humping the corner of this console for the past few minutes." For a moment, Lana thought her joking but Rena stepped away as if burned, like she'd only just realized her action. Lana could feel it too, now, what had slid quietly behind her mind now emerging. Making itself known. Her cheeks flushed, heart pounding in her ears.

Rena bit her lip and she stared, a moment too long.

"So it's not going to kill us. How long will it last?"

"Hours, perhaps. Less than a day." Lana sighed, datapad once more in hand. "I can't find much more detail than that. The research team may only have been studying effects of the final form of the spore for a short time before they evacuated."

"And it's not a problem? To stay?"

"No. Initial exposure triggers the effect, it's not based on dose. The base does have some decontamination features, which we can and should activate, just to be safe. Purge the ventilation system and heat-treat the air. It's likely more than we need."

Rena nodded. "It work on aliens?"

"I don't know. We could assume it dangerous to near-humans as well, just to be safe."

"Noted." She pulled out her holo once more.

"Before you ask, still fine. We're going to need some supplies, though." The captain ticked off a list of practicalities. Blankets, stims, sedatives. Food and water. Enough for a night but not a siege, and Lana did not fail to notice that the captain gave no specifics as to their situation. "And send Bowdaar, just in case."

She pocketed the holo and grabbed a chair from the floor, righting it and brushing off the dust as best she could.

"So they abandoned the base instead of decontaminating and starting over?" The captain whistled. "Your side has some budget to throw around."

"I'm not entirely sure why the base wasn't destroyed," said Lana. The reports were truly terrible work. She hoped, idly, that the project lead was reprimanded after his recovery. "It's standard procedure. But the experiment was declared a failure. The effects were relatively short-lived, and only manifested on the first exposure."

Rena was silent for a long moment.

"You're telling me they didn't clean it up because it wasn't bad enough. Because they made a weapon that didn't do enough damage. They just didn't care."

Lana opened her mouth to reply but the captain cut her off sharply with a gesture Lana was ashamed to follow too closely. Lingering, the hunger tickling at the back of her mind even as her anger flared. She'd had enough access to Imperial archives to know the Republic had been far from innocent in their part of the war.

Belsavis, in particular. She'd researched the captain. Knew she'd been there and knew what she had done while she was there. She of all people should know that the galaxy is never black and white.

"Where are the vent controls?" Rena didn't meet Lana's eyes.

Lana silently handed her a marked map of the base. Their fingers brushed during the handover and the captain let out a quiet breath. An unwanted expression, from the way she snapped a turn on her booted heel and fled. Lana ran her hand over her lips after she left, savoring the pressure.

* * *

"So what do we do now?"

It was getting worse. The feverish bloom had turned to prickling sweat, a dull ache behind her eyes and a steady throb between her legs. Rena, slung across a chair as far as possible from Lana without entering another room, shifted uncomfortably. At least they were both suffering as equals.

"We could talk," Lana replied. "It would certainly pass the time."

"I'm not sure you want us to continue our previous chat."

Lana most certainly did not. "Art? Music? Do you have any opinions on Sith opera, perhaps?" The last was a low blow, admittedly, but she was irritated and uncomfortable and so damned hot beneath her robes that she'd take the petty thrill.

"We could talk about Theron." Rena deliberately studied her fingernails.

"Theron is an agent of the Republic SIS, captain. Do you honestly believe he would object to the situation had we discussed it previously?"

"But you didn't."

"There wasn't time."

"And that makes it right? What if you're wrong? What if we're looking for a corpse?"

Lana was done with questioning. Rena Lerek had seen many things in her life, she knew that from her research, and surely more that she'd never find in the files. But she hadn't been through Korriban. She hadn't carried the weight of all those life or death decisions in her final test and watched her fellow acolytes live and die on the balance of them. Hadn't emerged into the merciless, sharp toothed whirlpool of the Sith and spent years surviving without losing her own principles.

"If we find a corpse, we'll find it with intelligence attached. I can assure you, it's what Theron would do," she snapped. "It's what I would do."

"Yeah, I know what you'd do. Slice my ship's nav, put my crew in danger, try and wreck my reputation in a port where I usually do pretty good business. You're real good at justifying your decisions for other people."

The holo beeped again, a welcome distraction. The voice on the other end was not a drawl this time but a roar.

"Bowdaar, you got those supplies?" Another roar in the affirmative.

"Just drop them outside. Don't think this stuff works on wookies but I don't want to find out."

" _I should stay_."

"I'm fine. Lana's great company. We're just bored." The captain was all false cheer now. Her hand rubbed against her upper thigh and Lana licked her lips, watching it circle. "Go have some fun while I'm in quarantine. Tell Risha she can charge it to the ship's account."

"And Bowdaar? Remind him, no heroic rescues." A booming laugh on the other end of the line. "Yeah, I know he was. That's why I said it."

An hour passed in silence. An hour that lasted fifteen minutes, she corrected herself, glancing at her chrono. Fifteen agonizing minutes, slowly becoming aware of every inch of her own skin, the way air and fabric moved along it ever so slightly with every breath, every shift. She took a gulp of water from the captain's supply drop, not making eye contact.

The worst part was not even her own heat, nor the uncomfortable silence. No, it was the increasing heat that washed over her and the dawning realization that it wasn't hers. The captain, once again on the opposite side of the room, was just as affected and it rolled off of her in waves. It filled Lana's Force-attuned senses, overwhelming them, a positive feedback loop that built and built unbearably.

"Okay, that's it, I'll be back." The woman across the room stood, shucking off her jacket as she did. Her sweat stained the shirt beneath it dark under her arms, in the patch between her breasts. For a moment, all Lana wanted to do was be near her. Breathe her in. Just for a moment.

"Where are you going?"

"Think you know," she said. Lana didn't until she felt those waves again, harder and faster against the shores of her mind. "Same thing you should be doing while I'm gone, if you're smart. I should have talked to Risha, had her grab that box from under my bed."

She disappeared through the door. Lana hadn't given it thought but now that the thought has been given to her it was all she could think about. And it was worse, infinitely worse, because even if she held back now, she knew the other woman would not.

How far had she gone? Lana resisted the urge to reach out, drawing her mind inward instead. She nearly panted now, the thought of relief suddenly the only thought worth having. Cheeks burning with shame, she unfastened her trousers and slipped a hand inside. Focused on the sensation, the immediate rush of pleasure at the pressure of her hand against slick flesh. Concentrated on the movement. Efficient. No way to know how long the other woman would take, she thought, and just like that Rena was there. In her mind's eye, just as she'd been in the room moments before.

How would she do it? Much like Lana herself, she supposed. The captain was a practical woman, she'd always admired that about her. Efficient, even if her sense of humor and professionalism left quite a bit to be desired. Lana could see her, hand between her thighs. Maybe without the shirt, in privacy, the other hand moving on her breast. Lana echoed her, nipple straining against the suffocating warmth of her robes. Off with the robes, then, with a sigh of relief.

In her imagination Rena arched and gasped and Lana followed, hips tightly swiveling. The captain would be loud, she decided. Thus prompted, her fantasy moaned, throaty voice shaping in just the way to drive Lana mad, and _oh_ , if Rena was alone before she was no longer. Lana's hand moved quicker, harsher, but it wasn't her flesh she stroked now. Rena was just as warm and the moans continued with hardly a breath between until finally, they burst together.

The edge was gone, but to her dismay, Lana remained unsatisfied. She groaned. By the time Rena stalked back into the room, a bit disheveled but clearly no more relieved, Lana had straightened her robes and returned to herself. Alone.

Another thirty minutes and Rena didn't bother to hide it. Neither did she.

"We could just fuck."

Lana's head snapped up.

"We were going to anyway, right?"

Were they? Lana was affronted at first but she had to admit, the captain was probably not incorrect. There had been... something, on Manaan, an edge to the flirting and an embrace that lasted perhaps a second too long. But it had only been a something, and then she'd quite literally fled the room to start life on the run.

"Look," said Rena, licking her lips. Lana was captivated, almost enough to miss the next part. "Just don't ever mention this to the crew, alright? They would never let me hear the end of it if they knew I'd ended up in bed with another Sith."

"Another?"

The captain grinned. "Don't worry, you're much better looking. Not evil, either." She paused, and then with a small shudder added, "It'll be better with less sand."

Lana wasn't sure whether to be flattered, but she no longer needed to make any effort to feel the woman's presence in the Force. She had meant her frank proposition and were Lana being honest with herself, it was more than a little flattering to know she had the same effect.

Had she imagined Lana's hand then too? Lana swallowed hard.

Rena sauntered towards her, hips swaying. Her shirt was only half buttoned, Lana realized. Better that way. She wanted this woman more than she had ever wanted anything in her life and all she had to do was reach out her hand. The simple length of an arm, a tug and Lana found herself pressed against the other woman.

Her own heat was unbearable but their heat together, unimaginable. Lana's thigh shifted, begging passage and Rena widened her legs to welcome her between them. Canted her hips and groaned at the first contact.

Not as loud as Lana would have liked, but perhaps, given time...

Rena moved faster than she expected, but the haste was welcomed. Her hand, pressed against Lana's flat stomach. The rasp of blaster callouses as she dragged it down, deliberately, to Lana's waistband, her eyes never breaking their gaze.

"Yes," said Lana to her unanswered question. "Yes. Please."

Trousers again unfastened. Why did she even bother doing them up again? Another hand and another angle, more awkward this time from the swap in perspective but she could not bring herself to care because all at once Rena was there. No teasing. Lana couldn't bear teasing and Rena knew it, seemed to know her somehow. Fast and hard, like she'd moved on herself, and she shamelessly pressed closer. Rena had her eyes closed in concentration, her own hips grinding against Lana's thigh once more, and each delicious grind accompanied by a soft grunt.

Did she know, Lana wondered, how beautiful she sounded? She was close, so close, and she told her so, though whether the words came out or she only shouted them against the storm in her mind she couldn't say.

_Stars._

And it wasn't enough. It still wasn't enough, and Lana's eyes pricked with tears at the sheer frustration of it all.

"Kiss me."

"Kiss me," the captain repeated, her hand tilting Lana's chin up to meet her eyes. "You know, act like I'm not some kind of call girl on Hutta."

"Nar Shaddaa, certainly."

Rena threw her head back and laughed and Lana obeyed her request, pressing against her lips as she returned.

Things escalated quickly. Why hadn't they been kissing before? They might have been kissing this whole time, and Lana mourned the loss of every precious second. She would make up for it, she resolved. Lana lost herself in it, that kiss and then the next, devouring and devoured. Her mind was hazy now, narrowed down to the only points in the galaxy that still mattered. Her lips, her cunt, the woman crushing her so close like they could share one skin if they tried hard enough.

She slipped away and began to drown.

* * *

Lana was in love with her skin. She normally preferred a slower seduction but for some reason there had been no time. Their clothes came off and she hardly remembered how, but it didn't matter because all that was left was their skin. One of them, some clever one, had at least had the mind to spread out a blanket to stand barrier between them and the duracrete floor, and Lana was grateful too for that. The itchy weave of the blanket just made the soft skin all the sweeter in contrast.

Rena, no longer content to twine and writhe, nipped her way down her neck. Nipped and then bit, almost if she knew Lana's mind once more, when she reached her nipple. Circled and sucked, that maddening seductive tongue silent but wonderful. Her hand wandered to cup her other breast, drawing soft lines with a finger. One line, two-

"Don't you dare."

"Oh, fine." The woman went back to her single-minded attack, lips and tongue and teeth. Lana groaned, aching and wanting and desperate for more. No teasing, please.

"Fine, fine."

That had been aloud, then.

Lana parted her legs and the woman slid down and she was finally, finally where the universe had declared somehow that she had to be. Her tongue, the stars. She held her thighs in an iron grip, harder than Lana normally would have preferred but now all Lana could think was that it should be harder. Lips and tongue and Lana's desperate gasps as she circled, circled, danced away until Lana swore. Fingers, too, with a quick glance upward to make sure they were welcome. They were more than welcome. She slid in so easy. Hard, harder, never hard enough; Lana wished somehow she could press a bit more, bring her inside herself somehow until they were only one person.

When she came this time, it was an explosion.

* * *

It slowed, both time and the act itself. They'd tasted and touched until they were sore and now they simply rocked, Rena quiet now after spending what felt like an eternity moaning as loud as Lana had hoped.

One more. She almost didn't notice the difference and hadn't before, but just as insidiously as the lust had arrived it crept away. Rena, to her credit, took the final leap and spared her the agony of decision. She pushed her hand away, gently.

"Enough, enough."

Stars, what a relief. Lana stroked the skin under her hand gently, circling, shivering along with her. She still felt the urge to touch but it was softer now, something tender. Something quiet.

It came back, as it must. Aches and fatigue no longer cloaked by the rush of pleasure. Her arm ached, shoulder to fingers, her cunt throbbed on the edge of soreness and she suspected she'd regret waking up the next morning for more reasons than one.

"Wow, we are..." Rena sniffed, rolling away, cold air replacing the solid warmth of her body. "That is rank."

There was no lie in it. It had truly been hours, somehow, and they both looked every minute of it, hair lank and sweat-sticky. The blanket was ruined. Her stomach growled and Lana rolled, too, just far enough to grab a tube of fruit gel from the pile of snacks they'd placed nearby for easy access. Discarded bottles and empty wrappers. Lana vaguely remembered a moment, one among so many, when they'd shared a meal bar broken to pieces. Rena hadn't even bothered to withdraw her pumping fingers.

Lana shuddered. Disgusting.

"No offense," the captain said, back turned and pulling on a fresh change of clothes, "but after that I am never having sex again." She tossed some to Lana as well. They couldn't be hers, not from the size of them. Lana wondered whose. A crewmate? Former lover?

The lust flared up, one final surge, choking. Lana closed her eyes and counted to ten.

A sound, mercifully distracting. Lana wasn't expecting to hear it, not after all this time, but she found the energy to rise and hurried toward her discarded datapad.

A connection. Undetected, and who knew for how long, but she set it to pull as much as she could and got more than she'd expected. What she'd hoped, in truth.

"Theron is alive."

Rena's head shot up.

"For how long?"

"I don't suggest we find out, do you agree?"

The captain didn't bother to answer, just pulled out her own holocomm.

"Who's there? Akaavi? No, wake 'em up. Tell them I'm sorry, but we've got a lead. The special stims are in a box under my bed." She paused. "Grey box, not the red one. Don't open the red one."

Before they left, Rena pulled one more thing from the supply crate. Something Lana hadn't known she'd requested, and something altogether apart from the rest of its contents. Five sticky grenades, the kind of ordinance a civilian probably shouldn't have. She watched in silence as Rena spread them around the room, attaching them to the support beams that seemed most load bearing.

"Rishi doesn't just have pirates, you know."

They didn't speak as they mounted the waiting speeders. The explosion washed the leaves around them as they fled, a momentary storm.

* * *

Theron was in bad shape. Lana had told the captain, so many lifetimes ago, that he understood her reasoning and she stood by that claim even now. That didn't mean he forgave her, though. Oh well. Necessity was not fair to anyone at times.

Necessity was also the information he had carried with him from his confinement along with the broken ribs and bruises.

Rena, too, didn't seem in the mood for forgiving. She grudgingly endured the concern of her crew, each in turn, and Lana felt for the first time a jealousy. No. A longing, perhaps, for someone to stroke her hair while she fended them off, for someone to wrap her in their arms and lift her from the ground protesting.

There was something empty, a small part she may have left behind on that cheap, scratchy blanket.

"You should rest, Theron." He looked up, meeting her eyes. Well, one eye. The other was impressively puffed and purpled.

"You're one to talk, Lana. You two look like you haven't slept in weeks." He smiled, something crooked and small. Not forgiveness, but perhaps acceptance. "I got tortured, what's your excuse?"

Their preparations were completed as quickly as they could be. Lana and Theron bid the captain farewell and fair luck. As Lana handed her a final datapad, their fingers brushed. Just for a moment.

Lana felt it in that instant. A tug, a blip, a tiny flicker in the Force that surrounded them. Then Rena was gone. Her imagination, surely, or the aftereffects of the spore.

Lana absently rubbed the spot for minutes after she left, all the same.


End file.
